COLUMBUS, Ohio – Illinois couldn’t do it.

It was the question everybody asked all season: Could Illinois go undefeated?

Sunday, the Illini nation got its answer.

“They just outplayed us; that’s all,” Dee Brown said. “That’s pretty much all I’ve got to say.”

Brown didn’t want to talk about it. Deron Williams emerged from the locker room, asked where his family was, and disappeared again. And the players who would answer questions did so slowly, reluctantly, and with hanging heads.

When Roger Powell Jr.’s last-second heave at regaining the lead missed the rim, the perfect season faded away. The Illinois fans in attendance fell silent, stunned. Ohio State’s student section went wild. Illinois players stood on the court for a moment, in shock.

While Ohio State’s fans taunted the Illini and hoisted their own players in celebration, Jack Ingram walked off the court, his arm around Dee Brown.

“I hate to lose, no matter what it is,” Ingram said. “You go and you practice and you do everything that we do all season long, and it’s terrible that we lost now.”

The Illini left the court as a team with glazed looks on their faces as they passed through the tunnel. Head coach Bruce Weber had to be escorted off the floor by a security guard, as Ohio State fans rushed the court.

It was tough for the Illini to put the game into perspective, as the loss to unranked Ohio State drops their record to 29-1 overall, 15-1 in the Big Ten. But the lllini are still conference champions. The team is still the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, which begins Thursday. And, at least through this afternoon, it is still the No. 1 team in the country.

Knowing the toughest and most important part of the season is still ahead is helping the team shake the loss.

“We were going to lose sooner or later, and that happened to be today,” Weber said. “I would rather lose now than in three weeks.”

How it happened was a point of contention. Was it the pressure of going so long undefeated? Weber didn’t think so.

“There’s no pressure,” Weber said. “They just played; they didn’t care.”

Was it looking ahead to the tournament instead of focusing on the task at hand? Maybe.

“We needed to play the style we’ve been successful at playing,” Weber said. “Ohio State got on our heels and did not quit. We just were not aggressive enough.”

Was it the curse of appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated? This week’s subject, Dee Brown, isn’t making excuses.

“I was playing bad basketball,” Brown said. “Take it how you want to take it.”

Overall, the team attributes the loss to playing one of the worst second halves of basketball it has all season. As Ohio State chipped away at an 11-point Illinois lead at halftime, the Ohio State fans erupted as if each basket was the game-winner. The Illini, however, never got a spark of their own.

“We played afraid to lose,” Nick Smith said. “That’s what’s so disappointing about today, not that we lost, just the fact that I don’t feel like we really got beat. We just kind of – I don’t know.”

After the game, the Illini slowly emerged and boarded the team bus one-by-one as Ohio State coach Thad Matta still sat in the post-game press conference, happily answering questions, and OSU players stood around eating pizza.

Weber appeared, security guard still at his side, and politely answered a few more questions. He got on the bus and then got off a few minutes later to sign autographs for three fans – two wearing orange, one in a red Ohio State hoodie.

The garage door opened and the bus backed away, and while this game sits heavily on the Illini, they say they’ll be ready to turn things around Friday.

“We still want to win the rest of them,” Williams said. “I don’t think it’ll be hard at all. We’ve lost before; we’ve got to get past this one and go to Chicago and win all three there.”